Why Is Adam Driver the Breakout Star of Girls? Maybe It’s Sexism.

Lena Dunham was among four speakers at this year’s inaugural SXSW Film Keynote program. After a lengthy and lively speech (fueled, she said, by “that Quaalude known as cheeseburgers”), Dunham addressed the mixed success of her fellow Girls cast mates. Though all six members of the core cast (Dunham, Alex Karposky, Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, and Adam Driver), have enjoyed greater visibility as a result of their involvement in the series, Dunham pointed out that the only real breakout star has been Adam Driver. Driver, who has been cast in a number of high profile upcoming projects that range from Scorsese to a galaxy far, far away, is, undeniably, the cast member to watch. And though, in her speech, Lena gushed over Driver’s talent, she also questioned whether or not it was easier for him, as a male, to get cast outside the show. She said that her female cast mates were “waiting patiently in the shadows” for roles that reflected their talented.

This is just a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done to change the uneven gender landscape in Hollywood. Dunham spoke passionately about the women in TV she admires (Amy Poehler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling, Claire Danes), and critically of what she called the “rough scene” still limiting women in contemporary Hollywood. She concluded by promising to continue the fight.

Women are typecast and men can play villains, Lotharios and nerds in
one calendar year. Something needs to change and I'm trying.